Show us your vintage Grands and Kings!

[mongrelnomoad]

I don't really know. Aesthetically, the 4520-8000 (top, 4 and 5 from left) is nigh on the perfect watch. slim, elegant, brimming with character, it personifies GS and Tanaka design better even than the slightly more bloated, less well resolved, but more historically significant 4420-9000 (top, third) ever could.

But...

The First (top left) looks a bit bland and derivative in photos, and the idea of cap gold sounds cheap, but in the fleash and on the wrist it feels such a high quality and obsessively fabricated object, and that carved dial is wonderful...

But...

My heart is with the King Seiko 4420-9990 (bottom third from left). A present from my wife, it holds a great sentimental value, but it's also such a forgotten linchpin of the 1960s high-end Seiko universe. The third of the 1963 Chronometer trilogy, it was such a fabulous watch that it was repackaged, and the movement redesigned to negate the need for the beautiful but delicate "kama" hacking lever, to become the Grand Seiko 44, the most iconic GS of them all.

[mongrelnomoad]

Originally Posted by lanteanflux

:)

It would be between the Arabesque or the 43999 SD, simply because I doubt I’d find a better example if I sold them and later looked to reacquire them.

But in terms of one to keep and wear, my first vintage GS… the 45GS no date on the orange strap… sentimental fav.

Which for you?


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Sorry… above post was supposed to be in response…

[Agamemnon]

[lanteanflux]

Originally Posted by mongrelnomoad

I don't really know. Aesthetically, the 4520-8000 (top, 4 and 5 from left) is nigh on the perfect watch. slim, elegant, brimming with character, it personifies GS and Tanaka design better even than the slightly more bloated, less well resolved, but more historically significant 4420-9000 (top, third) ever could.

But...

The First (top left) looks a bit bland and derivative in photos, and the idea of cap gold sounds cheap, but in the fleash and on the wrist it feels such a high quality and obsessively fabricated object, and that carved dial is wonderful...

But...

My heart is with the King Seiko 4420-9990 (bottom third from left). A present from my wife, it holds a great sentimental value, but it's also such a forgotten linchpin of the 1960s high-end Seiko universe. The third of the 1963 Chronometer trilogy, it was such a fabulous watch that it was repackaged, and the movement redesigned to negate the need for the beautiful but delicate "kama" hacking lever, to become the Grand Seiko 44, the most iconic GS of them all.

Interesting thoughts re 44 v 45gs!

Especially as 44gs is considered important for the very reason it’s meant to personify the Tanaka design.

I do find the 45gs better proportioned but a tad small. The dial and markers play with light better than the 44gs.


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[mongrelnomoad]

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

Lovely!

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by mongrelnomoad

Lovely!

Thank you!

[mongrelnomoad]

Wearing probably the most famous Grand Seiko of them all today, freshly back from a service and keeping 6spd. Mine is from February 1968 and is the later dial, sporting the lightning bolt of the Daini factory at 6 instead of the earlier Diashock.

Despite only being made for barely two years, it has come to define the design of Grand Seiko ever since - the very essence of the Taro Tanaka's Grammar of Design -

1. All surfaces and angles from the case, dial, hands, and indices had to be flat and geometrically perfect to best reflect light.
2. Bezels were to be simple two-dimensional faceted curves.
3. No visual distortion was to be tolerated from any angle, and all cases and dials should be mirror-finished.
4. All cases must be unique, with no more generic round case designs.

(Above taken from Worn and Wound)



This most famous Grand Seiko of them all had an odd gestation, being not a clean-sheet design, but rather a repackaged and re-bodied King Seiko 4420-9990. It's large for the era at 38mm, and sits flatter with its curved crystal - there is a reason so many of Seiko's current offerings use the 44GS case as it hasn't aged a day.

l-r: Grand Seiko 4420-9000 - King Seiko 4420-9990

[_speedmaster_]